If you are a Tom Robbins fan you will probably be disappointed. It is sad to see one of your favourite authors getting 'tired'. The metaphors look as if he spent far too much time thinking about them and the complexity of his thought is this time absent. For a non-American reader speaking about american 'tightness' and putting a 6-year-old to drink beer is not any big deal. The subtitle 'a children's book for grownups, a grown-up book for children' triggered my interest, but after I read the book I can only see the subtitle as an apology. It is probably fun if you haven't read Robbins before. However I felt kind of betrayed (having ordered the book 4 months before it was published), because till now I thought that Robbins is one of the few writers that can't disappoint me. I hope he finds himself again on the next one!